May 17, 2002 - This
week's photo story was sent to us by Tom Gandolfo of Covington, Louisiana.
His photo shows a utility pole oozing creosote, most likely pollutinging
Covington's groundwater. Most of Covington's citizens get their drinking
water from wells.

Creosote
is a hazardous mixture of 10,000 chemicals that is primarily used for
railroad ties and utility poles. Three of the classes of chemicals found
in coal-tar creosote that are known to cause harmful health effects include
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenol, and cresols. Creosote
is made up of about 75-85 percent PAHs, and several of them are known
to cause cancer. The American Wood Preservers Institute now estimates
that approximately 124 million gallons (1.1 billion pounds) of creosote
is used annually, more than all conventional pesticides combined.

On February
26, 2002, citing government inaction to protect the public from exposure
to toxic wood preservatives, environmental and public health groups, led
by Beyond Pesticides, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to immediately stop the continued use of the wood preservative creosote.
The groups say that EPA has sufficient data on creosote's health and environmental
risks to initiate cancellation and suspension proceedings. In the petition,
the groups cite cancer and other health and environmental risks from exposure
to wood treated with creosote.

Beyond
Pesticides launched Photo Stories on March 1, 2002. The photos are updated
on a weekly basis. Read the
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